12day workshop and jam with Mark Young and Lesley Greco, Sept15-28.
In Mark Young’s class: This is the tried, tested and true material that develops your dance. These exercises are for any and all dancers. The feedback has been incredible with many students returning to repeat this workshop. You don’t learn Spiral and Crescent Rolls and how to apply them in a single workshop. You learn some of what they have to offer and then it evolves. For me, it has been 15yrs of practise and my body is still adapting. The class description is the same as the other 12day retreats.
$1200Can includes all meals, dormitory, camping, tuition, taxes, and transportation on Lasqueti.
Arrive on Sunday Sept15 to be picked up from the ferry by a limousine, brought to the studio for dinner and rest. Class begins on Monday morning. The final jam is Friday, Sept27 with departure after breakfast on Saturday at 10am, the ferry leaves at 11.
Participants of past workshops have expressed surprise at their development by the third day and are amazed that they continue to improve as CI dancers throughout the 12 days. Some participants have done this workshop 5 times.
We will start with Tai Chi exercises that emphasize the spiral nature of our physiology. Everything from the DNA to the Milky Way is spiralling. All of our muscles are laid on bones that are shaped in spirals. The ancient Taoist masters recognized this and developed movement patterns that harness strength and ease in movement. This video was made during the 2018Residency for Experienced Dancers in Contact Improvisation.
We will bridge from Taoist Tai Chi to Steve Paxton’s ‘Material For the Spine.’ MFS includes spiral rolls, crescent rolls and Aikido rolls. These exercises are done alone on the floor. They inform the body of unnecessary tension. They bring awareness to blind spots. They bring consciousness to our dance.
We will bridge from floor work to partner work using these rolls to find smooth pathways with a partner. Exploring the concept that ‘lifts are organic’ we will let our feet come off the floor on our terms, when we want. Lifts and aerials in Contact Improv are not contrived like other dance forms. They happen because someone made a mistake; someone’s centre of gravity went below their partners’. We will play with this gentle riding up to slide down to roll up.
This workshop is the ‘essential’ Contact Improv. You can take these exercises with y0u and practice them for the rest of your life. They take more than two weeks to really know them, imprint them in your muscle-memory. Come back next year for a refresher.
Mark Young has been doing Contact Improvisation since 1997. What began as fun re-hab after a traumatic accident quickly became a serious study. He also began a serious study of Tai Chi and Vipassana meditation around the same time, these are the foundations of Contact Improvisation. He has studied C.I. with everyone who has come to the studio, many people outside of the studio and attended numerous conferences with the originators of the form at Breitenbush Hot Springs retreat centre. Also, he has attended numerous Contact Improv jams at Earthdance retreat centre in Massachusetts over the past 15 years. In 2000 he committed all of his resources to the creation of Leviathan Studio, a dance studio committed to the study of Contact Improvisation.
Class description for Lesley Greco: The Functional Anatomy of Listening
The auditory and vestibular mechanisms of the ear share anatomical origins and sensory information yet have distinct perceptual functions. The auditory system translates impulses from the element of air into the medium of liquid facilitating the metabolism of sound. The vestibular system, coined ‘the ear of the body’ by Alfred Tomatis, receives information from multiple sources throughout the body listening for our position in space, our movements, our uprightness as well as the motions and movements of those we are in contact with.
On a neurobiological and biobehavioural level, research suggests that our bodies listen to each other, mirror each other’s states, influence one another’s nervous systems, creating a body to body dialogue that occurs mostly below conscious awareness.
In this 12-day program at Leviathan we will study the anatomy and interrelationships of listening in, with and through our bodies investigating the absolute precision and poetry with which our body communicates. We will experiment with listening strategies in and out of contact for the purpose of developing the skills of physical dialogue and facilitating cooperative interchange within ourselves and with each other.
Lesley Greco has been practicing contact improvisation for18 years and manual bodywork for over 25. She has completed 5 years of study in osteopathic medicine and is currently conducting research on the concept and practice of listening. She loves to translate osteopathic principles into functional skills aimed at developing perception and cooperative relationship with our bodies. www.lesleygreco.com
To register go to ‘Contact Us’ on the right side of the screen and send an email. You will be responded to within 24hrs.
